Suicide Mission
by CSnow
Summary: Albus Dumbledore is dead. The Ministry of Magic has been overrun by Death Eaters. Voldemort has captured the Boy Who Lived and three of the members of the Order of the Phoenix decide to take things into their hands and attempt a suicide mission.


**Disclaimer: HP characters and storyline are not mine.**

**A/N: Just a fun scene that I thought I'd share. **

**Summary: Albus Dumbledore is dead. The Ministry of Magic has been overrun by Death Eaters. Voldemort has captured the Boy Who Lived and three of the members of the Order of the Phoenix decide to take things into their hands and attempt a suicide mission.**

A nondescript brown owl flew silently through the trees of the Forbidden Forest, taking in the werewolf packs roving freely. It flew towards the dark castle heading for what was left of the astronomy tower. The map had indicated that Voldemort had set up his headquarters at Hogwarts but had not detailed where he might be hiding the Boy Who Lived. Their best guess was that he was using the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirements, both of which were not part of the Marauder's Map. 

_Flashback_

"_Are you sure about this?" Fred asked._

"_We don't like the idea of you going in there by yourself--" George agreed._

"_We know the castle quite well—"_

"_Better than most—"_

"_One of us could do it."_

"_We've agreed that we only have one shot at this and I'm the one who can most likely do this without getting caught before it's done. And the two of you will be better at making a diversion out of the Order's plan than I could."_

_The twins sighed. "You know, if you get Harry out he'll have our head for this." _

_She smiled. "Don't worry, you'll be down at the bottom of the list of people to take care of. He's got a big to-do list."_

"_You promise you'll come back?"  
_

"_And use that portkey?"_

"_And not be a damn heroine?"_

"_I'll try."_

_They nodded and handed her the map. "Good hunting."_

The owl flew towards a half-decimated gargoyle and switched out of her animagus form to drop lightly onto it. Moonlight glinted softly on her blonde hair. Casting an invisibility spell on herself, she pulled herself into the tower and landed lightly on her feet. She silenced her footsteps and headed to a dark corner, thinking about the times she'd been here as a student. She pulled out the map and tapped it with her wand.

"I solemnly swear I'm up to no good. _Lumos._" The lines on the map emerged and she watched the dots appear. Some Death Eaters were in the Great Hall. Voldemort appeared in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom—well, except for the fact that all the ghosts had abandoned the castle when it had fallen, Peeves included. The poltergeist had done quite a number against Voldemort's invading forces even if the battle to keep Hogwarts out of his power was clearly for naught. The Dark Lord was headed to the Great Hall. She waited until the dots stopped moving, congregating around the dot named _Tom Riddle_ before she extinguished the light, rolled up the map and tucked it back in her robes. She quietly moved out of the tower and spied some junior Death Eaters roaming the halls. Why were they—oh, there they went. Running down the stairs to follow the call of their master. The stair cases were still moving on their own and she smiled as she patted the wall of the castle fondly, before she reached out with her thoughts. The old castle responded like an old friend. The stairs moved silently towards her and she quickly crept down to the right corridor. She looked towards the door to the Room of Requirements and smiled at the lack of guards. Moving silently, she paced in front of the door three times, thinking clearly of reaching Harry Potter. A dark forbidding door appeared. She cast a few spells at the door and found a ward to set off an alarm if someone without a Dark Mark tried to open the door. Letting out the breath she'd been holding, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a small bottle of polyjuice. This was one of the gambles they'd taken.

Drinking it down, she shuddered as her body switched to that of her old Potions professor. The polyjuice potion had been modified by Professor Snape and the twins to allow for passing along part of the subject's magical signature. It was an experimental potion to be sure, but it had passed the tests of the Order when they needed to fool Voldemort into thinking that Snape was with him, resting, when he was in fact reporting back to the Order of the Phoenix. That meant that someone had to take the potion and pretend to be Snape and more people gained an understanding of what the snarky man had lived through and a few insights on the darkness of his personality. The potion didn't last as long as regular polyjuice, so the person taking Snape's place had to constantly drink some, but it had worked for a couple of months. Unfortunately the Dark Lord had become less lenient towards Snape's preference of being kept out of raids once the reason for his position as his spy became less important with the Order's loss of members and the professor had eventually been caught helping the Order on the battlefield instead of killing them. After that, no one had brewed the potion again, until last month. She turned the doorknob and entered the room.

She looked around the room and spotted a dark casket surrounded by a magical shield. 

She unrolled the map and cast _lumos_ again. Voldemort and his lackeys were still in the Great Hall, but it looked like the meeting was ending and a number of Death Eaters were apparating out. Voldemort must have lowered the anti-apparition wards to let them go. They must have caught wind of the Order's fourth attempt to oust his forces in at the Ministry. She walked up to the casket and stared down at the face of her friend. 

"Hang on, Harry. I'll get you out." She looked at the map again. She had to wait until Voldemort left as well.

Deciding to ward the door first, she conjured a small lantern and set it on the floor. She threw five layers of spells on the door to confound anyone who came through them and laid in some offensive spells that would either stun or shock any wizard upon touching the doorknob. She brought out a second potion from her robe and used a conjured brush to draw a rune on the door itself, strengthening it in case the Death Eaters tried to break it down. The twins hadn't wanted her to do that since it might be limiting her options on ways out if they got inside, but she wasn't planning on leaving through the door anyway.

She turned back to the shielded casket behind her and checked the map again in time to see Voldemort disappear off the map. Quickly, she moved back to the middle of the room and drew a circle and a pentagram around the casket, then said an incantation. Feet planted wide, she took a goblin made dagger out of its sheath at her belt, drew a cut along her hand and stabbed the shield with it. The dagger sang with energy as the shield was broken. She staggered under the magical backlash, but was glad to see that the energy unleashed had been kept within the barrier made by the circle and pentagram. Less chance of being found out this way.

A few minutes later, once she had caught her breath, she approached the casket cautiously and waved her wand above it to see if there were any other wards in place. Nodding in satisfaction, she tipped the top open and drew in a tight breath at the sight of the friend she hadn't seen in five months. Quickly, she dug through her robes for the antidote to the Draught of Living Death and poured it into his mouth with shaking hands.

"Come on, Harry. Swallow." She coaxed as her trembling hands rubbed his throat soothingly. She poured some more down his throat, then cast a warming charm around him. Gently lifting his head, she put the butterbeer cap necklace around his neck. It was a portkey she'd designed to work specifically for this mission. They could be triggered by a spell or set off through a time-delay charm. Taking note of the state of his robes, she pulled out another vial of polyjuice, this time putting one of Harry's hairs in it. She conjured a pair of glasses to match his, transfigured her clothes to look like his, and sat down to wait. According to their research, the antidote would take about a half hour to get Harry into a stable, more normal sleep. It would be hours before he woke up and probably a month before all the effects of the draught were gone, but in order to move him safely they had to at least wait the half hour. 

She wondered how they were holding up at the Ministry. The attack was a real plan by the Order, she had just capitalized on it with the help of the twins on this crazy mission based on the assumption that Voldemort wouldn't want his most precious horcrux, the one that had the power to vanquish him, out of his sight. No other members of the Order had found the assumptions convincing enough to risk attacking Hogwarts on the chance that Harry would be found in there. No one except Fred, George, and herself.

Checking the map again, she was surprised to see some Death Eaters returning. On the other hand, they weren't moving much in the Great Hall, maybe these were just the injured ones that apparated out of the fight. Casting _Tempus_, she figured they had at least another five minutes. She cast a time delayed _Portus_, tapping her wand against the side of the necklace. 

Oh no, Voldemort was back. And he was moving up the stairs. She reached out to the castle and Hogwarts responded again, moving the staircases opposite of where Voldemort wanted to go. Quickly, she drank down the polyjuice and hoped that it wouldn't react too strongly with the remnants of the other polyjuice she had just taken. She put a newly made wand, made by Ollivander to hopefully complement Harry's magic since they wouldn't be able to get his old one back from Voldemort, in Harry's hand. 

"Mischief managed." She tapped the map lightly and slipped it into one of Harry's pockets before closing the casket. No need for any Death Eaters that came in to think that there were two "Harry Potter"s around.

Her breath quickened as she tapped the time-delay spell on her own portkey. She slipped her second wand into her hand as she heard curses from the other side of the door, and smiled. Hogwarts was trying to hold them off and her wards were helping. But she knew it wouldn't last for long.

"_Tempus." _ Only a couple of minutes had gone by since she'd checked the map. She stepped closer to the casket as the door shuddered. She bent behind the casket and aimed her wands at the door. As the ward brightened and broke, she threw a Reducto curse at the first wizard coming through. Voldemort dissipated it with a wave of his wand, two other wizards behind him.

"_What is this?" _he hissed. "Get him! Nott, go fetch more of the Draught from the Dungeons. Now!"

She leapt out of the way of a couple of curses and returned fire, dodging around the casket for cover. Holding a shield in front of her with the wand in her left, she threw hexes and curses with her right.

"Idiot!" Voldemort shouted at his Death Eater. "Don't hurt him!"

An Expelliarmus from Voldemort left her with only one wand and she quickly switched it into her right hand as she drew the silver dagger she'd used previously in her left. She jumped onto the casket to get a chance to aim it at the Death Eater and flung it into his side as she jumped off and rolled, getting a glancing blow of a curse dealt by Voldemort.

"Now, where did you get these wands? And even if you had woken up you shouldn't be this active. Tell me, Potter. What did you do?" Voldemort asked, sending a bone crushing hex at her. She dove, but couldn't get out of the way fast enough and crumpled to the floor. Was she close enough to cast the last spell she needed to cast?

"I'm the Boy Who Lived, Voldemort. Interesting things happen around me." She said, hoping to buy some time. How long had the fight lasted? Not very long.

Nott came back holding a vial in his hand.

"My Lord," he said, bowing. "Here is the draught."

"Drag him to the casket and put him under again." Voldemort ordered.

She threw a fire lashing curse at them and tried to move for some cover, but Voldemort dissipated that spell as well and accioe'd her wand out of her fingers. Nott advanced on her, picked her up, and dragged her over to the casket. Voldemort turned to the door. As Nott took one hand off of her to open the casket, she threw her knee into his groin, ignoring the pain in her chest. Wrestling his wand out of his hand, she shouted an incantation to nullify anti-portkey wards. Her level of energy limited it to a five foot radius, but it was enough to encompass her and the casket. Voldemort turned back and started to cast a spell as she felt the portkey starting to taking effect. The curse hit her, nullifying the portkey on her, but she smiled. It wouldn't have affected the other portkey, which meant that Harry was portkeyed to the twins' hiding place. 

Nott got up and punched her in the face. She sprawled onto the floor, glasses flying off her nose and wand clattering noisily into a corner of the room. He dragged her into the empty casket and forced the Draught of Living Death down her throat. As she fell into deep sleep, she wondered what McGonagall would say when she found out what they'd done. And she wondered what Voldemort would do when he next checked on his horcrux to find that the Boy Who Lived had been replaced by an ordinary witch. Well, perhaps not so ordinary. She was, after all, heiress of Ravenclaw…

ooOOoo

A/N: Don't worry, I'm working on the next update for the Maximus story. I'd love it if you let me know what you think of this oneshot though! Please review. 


End file.
